1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical transceiver. More specifically, the present invention relates to an optical transceiver with which an optical transmitter/receiver of optical components can be exchanged individually and repaired easily when there is a fault generated in the optical components (optical transmitter and optical receiver) housed inside.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a full-scale broadband and ubiquitous-computing society is becoming established, information traffic amounts of trunk networks and subscriber networks are increased dramatically. Accordingly, a mass-storage and highly reliable optical communication system that can bear various kinds of applications is desired.
While various forms of optical communication systems have been developed, it is an important issue to be able to deal with faults of various kinds of optical components loaded on a substrate in any of such optical communication systems.
As an example of the optical communication system, there is known an optical module with which the module itself that conducts transmission and reception of data is replaced (see WO/2008/108399 (Patent Document 1), for example).
With the optical module disclosed in Patent Document 1, a light emitting element, a light receiving element, a transmission LSI, a reception LSI, and the like are loaded on a substrate, and the entire optical module is to be exchanged when there is a fault generated in the optical module.
Further, there is also known an optical communication card unit which includes driving condition data of optical transmission/reception elements loaded inside an optical module to make it easy to perform adjustment and exchange (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Hei 7-210644 (Patent Document 2), for example).
With the optical communication card unit disclosed in Patent Document 2, a data input/output connector is provided on one end of the card, and a memory for storing data, a control section for controlling input/output of data, and an optical communication unit are provided on a substrate of the card.
Further, it is also desired to increase the transmission speed of an optical transceiver used as an optical transmission system.
As a method for increasing the transmission speed of the optical transceiver, a structure of transmitting optical signals of four wavelengths by bundling them into a single optical fiber has been studied. For example, “40 Gbps” can be implemented by transmitting four wavelengths of “10 Gbps” through a single optical fiber. In this case, four each of optical transmitters for transmitting optical signals and optical receivers for receiving optical signals are provided within the optical transceiver that can increase the transmission speed.
However, when there is a fault generated in a module of the optical module disclosed in Patent Document 1 described above, i.e., even in a case where there is a fault generated only in the light emitting element out of the light emitting element and the light receiving element of the module, the light receiving element having no fault is also exchanged since the module itself is replaced. Therefore, the components are to be wasted.
Further, when there is a fault generated in the optical communication card unit disclosed in Patent Document 2 described above, i.e., even in a case where there is a fault generated only in the light emitting element out of the light emitting element and the light receiving element of the card, the light receiving element having no fault is also exchanged since the card itself is replaced. Therefore, the components are to be wasted with the technique of Patent Document 2 as in the case of Patent Document 1.
Furthermore, when there is a fault generated in one of the optical transmitters/receivers of the optical transceiver which transmits optical signals of four wavelengths by bundling them in a single optical fiber, it is necessary to exchange the entire optical transceiver. Therefore, the components are to be wasted.
Further, even when the fault optical transmitter/receiver within the optical transceiver is detached, a new optical transmitter/receiver is loaded, and the optical transmitter/receiver is readjusted thereafter, a great amount of time is required for the repair.
In order to overcome each of aforementioned issues, it is therefore an exemplary object of the present invention to provide an optical transceiver with which a plurality of optical transmitters/receivers constituting the optical transceiver can be individually detached, exchanged, and repaired, so that waste of components can be avoided.